Posted on Friday, 13th August 2010 by Eden Fryett
The Wisconsin-based aerospace company Rocketplane had a plan to send tourists into space and lead the way in one of the more unique tourism industries.
That dream will not likely be realized now, however, as the company has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, along with its CEO.
Rocketplane filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last month, according to The Oklahoman. It had recently relocated its operations to Wisconsin from Oklahoma. In the 2009 move, Rocketplance closed its Oklahoma City headquarters and left its hangar at the Oklahoma Spaceport located in Burns Flat.
The company listed as assets the patented intellectual property dealing with the design of aircraft that would be able to take tourists into space, as well as some structural components. The patents, as well as the components, will now likely be sold in the liquidation of the company’s assets.
The CEO of Rocketplane, George French, is filing personal bankruptcy for three of his business entities: Rocketplane, Rocketplane Global and Rocketplane Kistler. The three companies together listed debts that total around $22 million.
According to French, the company’s years in Oklahoma were spent in “preliminary design review.”
Rocketplane’s funding came from both public and private sources. The company received $18 million in state tax credits to start its operations back in 2003. This Space Transportation Vehicle Provider Credit offered by the state of Oklahoma expired at the end of the year. Private investment was also a part of Rocketplane’s business plan.
French was straightforward about the company’s philosophy about putting the money to use. “We came there, and put all our money on the table,” he said. “We spent it all.”
The creditors that are listed in the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing include individuals, banks and international and U.S. businesses. The local debts include almost $44,000 owed to a Tulsa accounting firm, almost $48,000 to an Oklahoma City accounting firm, and almost $63,000 to a former program manager.
French listed himself as a creditor as well, having filed that he is owed $735,500 in deferred salary.
The company went through several possible designs for its space tourism craft. Initially, according to former astronaut John Herrington, who was hired by Rocketplane in 2005, the design worked with the idea of modifying the body of a Learjet airplane.
That philosophy didn’t bear fruit, though, and the engineering team decided to instead build the aircraft from scratch itself. Contracts were made with companies to build jet engines powered by kerosene and liquid oxygen.
Salaries were also a large part of the investment. French said that 200,000 hours of design work was done, accounting for a significant portion of the $18 million in funding from the state.
In 2007, the company’s investments started to decrease, and it lost a primary funding source, causing it to struggle to stay salient.
Herrington was optimistic about the company’s chances, had things been different. “If we had successfully acquired the capital that we needed, we would have grown into a major player in the commercial space program.”
French estimated that the company would have needed several $100 million space tourism crafts to be viable.
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